Why?

Ps.23:³ “He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to his name.”

Why do we do the things we do? It is all for God’s glory. Why will God set a table for you in the presence of your enemies? It is all, all for God’s glory. So that when you are feasting and singing praises to God, and they ask, ‘Which God are you praising?’ You will respond, ‘My Jesus!’ Isn’t that beautiful? A lot of the time, people do not understand that the story of their lives is so important to God. Your story is for God’s glory. The story of your life is so important to God. There are no two stories that are the same. Your path is unique; you will go through things; people are going to talk about you. It is going to be messy, but as they say, God will bring a message out of the mess and the story will be to His glory.

In church, we count people, and people have challenged it asking, why do you count people? We count people because people count. We count people because everyone has a story, and every story is to God’s glory. Every single story is to God’s glory. A Pastor came to my office back in the day asking me to share a few things with him about church growth. So, I asked him, ‘how many were you in church last Sunday?’ He said, ‘No, no, no, no, we do not count people’. It sounds spiritual, right? He sighted David’s story when he counted people in 2 Sam. 24. And I said, ‘but David’s story is different’. So, to drive the point home, I asked him what the total giving (offering) was for that service, and he told me, even to the last kobo. Then I said, ‘so you will count the money, but you will not count the people?’

You count what is important. Jesus says in Matthew 18 that a shepherd had a hundred sheep, and one was missing, so he left the ninety-nine and went to look for one. How did the shepherd know that one sheep was missing? There is no way on earth that a shepherd can look at a flock of ninety-nine sheep and know one is missing. Sheep are chaotic, sheep do not stand in a single file. There is no way the shepherd can know that one is missing if he did not count. And the reason the shepherd counts is that every sheep has a story, and every story is to God’s glory. Every story is to God’s glory.

Back to the story of Joseph, when your dream excludes others, it becomes a problem for you. But when the dream moves from being your dream to God’s dream, then it includes others, and it becomes a privilege for you to be on that dream. Most times, we are fixated on ourselves, we are focused on ourselves. Even when we are dealing with God, our focus is on Him fixing us, solving our problems, doing things for us. Instead of saying, ‘Jesus fix my life, we need to switch to ‘Jesus, You are my life, my whole life.’

Prayer (song): It’s all about You, Jesus. And all this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame. It’s not about me, as if You should do things my way. You alone are God and I surrender to Your ways. Amen!